My husband and I spent a fair few hours this week in various health-related waiting rooms…it made me grateful for all the usual stuff (health, wealth, happiness and all that jazz) but it also made me grateful for the art of stickybeaking….there is nothing better than a stickybeak with a fellow stickybeaker (aka my husband). Let me clarify here there is a space between sticky-beaking and busy-bodying…we never cross that line.
We were seperated from three other families by a thin curtain…it was still pretty early on a weekday morning but the hospital was humming with all those yucky disastrous things that happen behind closed doors. Across from us was a woman with a writhing toddler stuck to her chest, she was glued to her iphone, furiously texting, furiously scrolling – I did want to lean over and ask what she was reading but my son had fallen asleep on my arm (the arm is yet to wake up…should I seek medical attention??). The middle aged man to the diagonal was also reading his iphone (what did we all do without them??) and his tween-age daughter was trying to persuade him that her legs felt funny despite her 15 trips to the loo in a half hour period…he was very econominal with his answers…you could probably call them grunts. The couple next to us were fussing over a little boy who coughed like a seal and shuffled around like a little old man – his dad, lets call him the suit, spent the day ringing the office, reading out powerpoint slides to his assistant and then telling his son that his illness was in gods hands…I could have given his presentation by the end of our stay.
My partner in crime and I kept each other updated on the happenings of our roomies  – we shared how the furious scroller was going, what request the tween had come up with that hour and how the suit’s powerpoint presentation was going. We wondered where they had come from, we were happy for them when their kids were given the all clear and we were a bit bummed to not see out how it all unfolded when we got to go home.
Im grateful for a husband who secretly loves a good sticky-beak as much as I do.
Whats the most important skill for a good sticky-beak? Can women do it better than men?
p.s My husband was at the train station the next day, his text to me read…the suit is on my train.
Now we both know that it was a good thing your dead-arm kept you from asking what your roomie was reading – for that would deftly have stepped you out of sticky-beaking and into busy-bodying.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve had a dead-arm since my first was born. I think it’s a hazard of raising under fives. The only cure is growth… x
I know…it would have also exploded the fantasy in my head that she was reading some trashy novel and that was her only secret chance to read it…if I was a busybody I would have found out that she was reading the herald or some boring blog and then I would have been deflated.
The feeling in my arm returned after my son was 3 months (repetitive i-phone while breastfeeding strain) and now its back again…
Love it!
I’m a big fan of the stickybeak – and tend to take what little information I can glean and coat it in a hundred or so assumptions to arrive at a complete stranger’s virtual life story.
Hosptials and waiting rooms make for fabulous stickybeaking.
I found the justice department and jury duty equally rewarding though!
🙂
Oh hospitals are like an open book for days of our lives. I spent six weeks in hospital before the birth of my first child, I learn’t sooooo much. lol.
So true Mandy! It was like a bad episode of neighbours…so bad that you cant turn away
Hi Sarah,
Like the piece, hope no dramas?
I nominated you for a versatile bloggers award – see my site for why!
Feel free to ignore if you are too busy for such frippery – fully understand !
Kate
Hey Kate was wondering where you were – thought you had vanished! Thanks…will have a look once I finish my 11000 word essay on loss and resilience and survive a 6th birthday rainbow party…I have a good TSIB interview coming up on Tuesday x
Loving the PS!! Hehe!
We had a similar scenario when we were in the ER two years ago with Princess Ella. Sticky beaking was a great way to pass the time! 🙂
It is isnt it Kellie…thanks for popping over – have a good week